Today's motor vehicles are increasingly provided with subassemblies that are electrically powered and/or monitored. Thus a typical door can hold a latch that itself includes electrically powered actuators and various position switches, a window actuator as well as position-detecting switches for the window, and one or more speakers. The various position switches are connected to the on-board computer and the window and latch actuators are similarly connected to the appropriate controllers while the speakers are connected to the sound system.
The standard method of making these connections is by providing one or more plugs or sockets on the subassembly and complementary plugs or sockets on the vehicle, with one part of each pair of mating parts carried at the end of a multiconductor cable so that it can be fitted with its mate before the subassembly is actually installed on the vehicle, typically by screwing or bolting. This type of hookup entails an extra step in the assembly of the vehicle and the hardware is complex and, therefore, adds unnecessarily to the vehicle cost.